The War on Cars
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EPISODE 122: Car Insurance is Too Cheap
🕑 Added 2024-03-19 10:01:01 +0000 UTCHello, friends of The War on Cars!
For our latest episode, we take a look at something we've never covered on the podcast before: car insurance in the United States and why it's too cheap.
We can hear the response of all the drivers out there. "Too cheap? You gotta be kidding me. I've never paid more for car insurance." That's very true. Today, the average annual premium for full coverage is more than $2,500, up from more than $1,700 just a few years ago. There are a lot of reasons for this, including the high price of cars, supply chain issues, and the increasing frequency and severity of crashes. But no matter how you add it all up, it’s a huge problem in a country where driving is a ticket to full participation in society.
Despite rising prices, insurance hardly covers the full cost of harm caused by car crashes, either at the personal or societal level. Today, mandatory state minimum coverage requirements have not kept up with the rising cost of car crashes, something all of us subsidize whether we drive or not—and that crash victims often pay for with life and limb.
It was a great privilege to speak with advocate Michelle DuBarry in Portland, journalist Daniel Knowles of the Economist, and attorney Steve Vaccaro for this episode. We hope you all find it meaningful.
Many thanks as always for your support.
- Doug
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LINKS:
Learn more about Michelle DuBarry and her advocacy for a Made Whole Doctrine in Oregon.
Why Car Insurance in America is Actually Too Cheap, by Daniel Knowles in The Economist.
Buy a copy of Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What To Do About It by Daniel Knowles and get books by previous podcast guests in our official Bookshop.org page.
Steve Vaccaro: “New York City’s best-known lawyer advocate for bicyclist and pedestrian rights.”
Auto Insurance Spike Hampers the Inflation Fight (New York Times)
NHTSA: Traffic Crashes Cost American $340 Billion in 2019
Comments
The War on Cars
Thanks for the comment! Definitely look into it. We didn't have time to get into all of the specifics in the episode, but subrogation is also a thing that varies by state. So it will depend on where you live. There are also lots of specifics and conditions in terms of what kind of health insurance you have. Private insurance, Medicare/Medicaid, etc. It's confusing! - DG
VanDiagram
Thank you for this episode. I did not know about subrogation and will be looking into both my car and health insurance to understand if I am trapped by that. Even if you don't own a car, if you are hit, you are probably trapped by it.
John Gear
I’m just putting this here for your listeners, I think you folks are on top of this: More on the burdens of compulsory autoism: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2024/03/25/study-how-car-ownership-is-keeping-americans-from-financial-stability
